What is internal communication?

What is internal communication? If you’ve reached this article hoping to know the answer, you’re in luck.

If you are having conversations in your organisation about the role of internal communication, why it’s important and what you need to know as a professional communicator, you’ll find information in here for you too.

It’s a privilege to be exposed to the inner workings of organisations to help them improve. The aim of this article is to help you examine your own thinking about internal communication.

While researching this article, the search results kept sending me back to my own blog. Which was rather amusing, albeit not helpful as I wanted to read what other people know and think!

So I decided to ask. I’ve collated definitions used by practitioners, academics and industry experts to describe internal communication. You’re welcome to add yours by commenting below or Tweeting me @AllthingsIC.

Definition of internal communication

Depending where you look, you’ll discover different definitions of what internal communication is.

I ask everyone who attends one of my Internal Communication Masterclasses to define internal communication – framed as “What is internal communication?” I don’t specify profession or practice.

Every practitioner creates something different, and often what they write is the definition they use when describing internal communication to friends and family.

We have a group discussion and I share some thoughts and comms theory. Then a short while later I ask them to review what they’ve written and ask if they’d make any changes. Often people do, but it always strikes me how varied the answers are, although they follow common themes.

The themes are typically two-way channels, systematic approach, employee engagement and linking to company strategy.

In short, there’s not one answer to the definition of internal communication. Bearing in mind we exist to bring clarity and help an organisation achieve its objectives, we’re hardly helping ourselves!

What is internal communication?

How do you describe what internal communication is? You’re welcome to comment below or Tweet me @AllthingsIC.

In its simplest form, I describe it as:

“The way a company interacts with its people and they interact with it.”

Note that doesn’t talk about a single person, function or activity being responsible for internal communication. I believe it is everyone’s role, and ours is to help coach and facilitate. I often couple that sentence with a description of the purpose:

I think the purpose of internal communication is not telling people what to do. It is to create shared understanding and meaning. Only when this happens can employees work together towards a company’s goals.

Everything you do has to be aligned to the objectives, goals and purpose of the organisation. It’s why we exist.

The descriptions I use are deliberately relatable – regardless of your experience of internal communication, you can understand what I mean by them. (I’ve checked and will continue to do so).

Clients have said to me: “But Rachel I thought you’d say something longer than that.”

Nope. I think succinct is best because we then work together to determine what that interaction means for their organisation and what shared understanding and meaning looks like for them.

I want to know whether the four drivers of employee engagement exist in their organisation for example – it gives me a starting point to determine whether interaction is happening and/or working.

What do others say?

Wikipedia states:

Internal communications (IC) is the function responsible for effective communications among participants within an organisation. The scope of the function varies by organisation and practitioner, from producing and delivering messages and campaigns on behalf of management, to facilitating two-way dialogue and developing the communication skills of the organisation’s participants. – Wikipedia

If you have studied internal communication, chances are you have attended a CIPR course via PR Academy. Annique Simpson wrote for my blog a couple of days ago to reveal what it’s like to study internal communication..

This week I asked Ann Pilkington, Director at PR Academy for the definition she uses.

Dr Welch adds: “The definition specifically refers to stakeholders since it was influenced by Scholes’ view of internal communication as: “The professional management of interactions between all those with an interest or “a stake” in a particular organisation.” – Scholes 1997: xviii.

What does Kevin himself use as a definition?

“Corporate information provided to employees that is also tailored to specific internal stakeholder groups (middle managers, line managers, functional and project teams, and peer groups) combined with the concurrent facilitation of employee voice that is treated seriously by all managers.” – Dr Kevin Ruck, Exploring Internal Communication, Gower, 2015.

Kevin’s point about employee voice being treated seriously is such an important one.

I wanted to know what definition practitioners use, so I asked people in my network. I was pleased to hear my glossary of internal communication is used regularly to help internal communicators explain what they do.

“Internal communication includes everything that gets said and shared inside an organisation. As a function its role is to curate, enable and advise on best practise for organisations to communicate effectively, efficiently and in an engaging way.” – Jenni Field, @mrsjennifield, Director, Redefining Communications, Chair of CIPR Inside and one of my fellow @theICcrowd co-founders.

“Internal communication is when businesses are talking to their internal audience. It is the way in which the relationship between the business and employees is facilitated.” – Brittany Golob, Editor of Communicate Magazine.

Is there a difference across the pond? Here’s what Chuck Gose, @chuckgose host of the ICology podcast over in the US told me:

I asked Alex Malouf, @alex_malouf, Corporate Communications & Reputation Manager for the Arabian Peninsula, Procter & Gamble, who is based in the Middle East. Alex sat in my #questionofcomms hot seat a few months ago.

He told me:

“For me, it’s all about being able to help foster dialogue between employees at all levels, which in turn helps everyone see the big picture. This helps drive productivity, loyalty, innovation, and belief in what the organisation is doing and everyone’s role in making success happen. Sounds easy in theory, but it’s much tougher in practice somewhere like the Middle East region, where IC is seen as a means for management to talk down to employees. We have to change this concept.” – Alex Malouf, Corporate Communications & Reputation Manager for the Arabian Peninsula, Procter & Gamble

That’s such an interesting point re: managers seeing IC as a means to “talk down” to employees. Do you experience that?

What about in-house communicators here in the UK? Keith Riley-Whittingham, @keithrileywhitt told me:

“We connect our People with our Purpose. We do this through telling stories about our service, culture and product, in line with our global strategy.” – Keith Riley-Whittingham, Communications and Media Executive, Travel Counsellors.

“Internal communications is the art of engaging and communicating with and for your internal stakeholders. It has to be a two-way function and be tailored to suit the intended audience (i.e one size doesn’t fit all).” – Jack Adlam, Deputy Head of Communications, London North West Healthcare NHS Trust.

“Internal Communications’ function is to help leaders in your Department or Agency inform and engage employees, in a way which motivates staff to maximise their performance and deliver the business strategy most effectively. It is not about ‘sending out stuff’.” – Russell Grossman,Director of Communications, Office of Rail and Road and Government Communication Service Head of Profession for Internal Communications.

What about professional associations? Here’s what the Institute of Internal Communication @ioicnews says:

“Organisations need to communicate effectively with their employees. It sounds simple, but the reality is less so. And as organisations get bigger, this becomes a more complex challenge. At the most basic level, you have to communicate well at the right time so employees know what is expected of them and what is happening in the organisation. At a deeper level, for employees to feel engaged with their workplace and give their best, they have to believe their organisation cares about their views and understand how their role contributes towards overall business objectives.”– Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC).

Internal communications training

Enjoyed this article and want to learn more about internal communication? Come and join me at one of my All Things IC one-day Masterclasses. They’re held in London every month and cost £599 +VAT per person.

Come and learn, meet peers and boost not only your comms skills, but your confidence too.

As a Fellow of both the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) and Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC), I offer 20% discount for CIPR and IoIC members, plus nonprofit organisations. My 2019 course will be in St Pancras, London

Want to spend time talking through your career, internal communication plans or to pick my brain?

Rachel

1 Comment

Patrick
on 13 July 2017 at 5:11 pm

Thanks for the informative post, Rachel!! Being familiar with internal communication myself, I can still say I have learned quite a few new things by reading this article. You have also gained yourself a new twitter follower. Looking forward to reading more from your blog!